By Leo Gaggl December 3, 2025
Series: Who Really Decides? – Taking Back Our Community’s Voice
Have you ever wondered why, despite overwhelming public support for climate action, meaningful progress in Canberra seems to move at a snail’s pace? You’re not alone. The answer often lies in a room you’re not invited into, in a conversation you never get to hear.
It’s a story about influence, and it’s time we talked about it.
A Playbook for Delay
The fossil fuel industry has spent decades perfecting a playbook designed to delay and distract. It’s a strategy borrowed directly from the tobacco industry: manufacture doubt, champion “solutions” that are always just over the horizon, and ensure you have unparalleled access to decision-makers.
The result? A political climate where the voices of a few powerful companies can drown out the concerns of an entire community.
A groundbreaking 2018 report from the independent Grattan Institute, titled “Who’s in the room?”, confirmed what many of us have long suspected. By analysing ministerial diaries, they found that business and industry groups have “disproportionate access to senior ministers,” giving them a powerful platform to shape policy long before it ever reaches the public.
Money, Access, and Opaque Politics
This influence isn’t just about meetings. It’s also about money.
While we all get one vote, large corporations can make their voice heard through political donations. And disturbingly, much of this money is hard to trace. Research from the Centre for Public Integrity found that a staggering $91 million in “hidden donations” funded the 2022 federal election. That’s about one in every five dollars received by the major parties coming from sources that aren’t clear to the public.
This “dark money” creates a system where accountability is blurred. As The Australia Institute has documented, there are huge gaps in our disclosure laws, allowing corporate spending to flow into politics through indirect and opaque pathways. They’ve even highlighted how some of the largest fossil fuel companies in Australia have paid little to no corporate tax in recent years, all while spending significant sums on lobbying efforts.
The Local Impact
This isn’t just a Canberra bubble problem; it has real-world consequences for us here in Boothby.
- Delayed Climate Action: Means our communities face higher insurance premiums due to increased climate risk.
- Environmental Threats: Puts our beautiful coastline and hills at greater risk from more severe weather events like bushfires and storms.
- Health Concerns: Worsening heatwaves and air quality affect the most vulnerable in our community, from the very young to the elderly.
Our community cannot afford another decade of delay disguised as debate.
It’s Time for a Different Voice
This is the core of why we need a change. When a representative is tied to a major party, they are part of a system that relies on these powerful interests. They are subject to the pressures and priorities of the party room, which is in turn influenced by the lobbyists in the hallways of Parliament House.
A true community independent is different. They are accountable only to you, the people of Boothby. They can’t be swayed by a party boss or a corporate donor. Their job is to represent our voice, and our voice alone.
Imagine policy shaped by people who live here, not lobbyists who don’t.
In the next post in our series, we’ll explore how the same patterns of influence affect our healthcare system.